Mass Effect: Blood Ties
by GIRLIKESTACOS
Summary: When Evela'Zadie left the Fleet, she intended to search for her missing brother. She never intended to become one of the fiercest snipers in all of the Terminus Systems. Two years later, she may have finally found a lead.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: This is my new story, I'll be taking my time on it unlike my old story, The Odd Ones Out. TOOO is pretty much over unfortunately, due to a lack of interest in it anymore. I hope to make up for it by making a better, more well-written story to replace it.**

**I'll take any critiques in the review section. Any feedback at all is helpful and appreciated.**

...

Rain pelted the icy rocks around me, leaving a dull, blurred reflection on their darkened surfaces. It wasn't very often that I got to see rainfall, and it was even less often I got to set foot on a planet that actually supported life. It was cold, the kind of cold that goes straight to your bones. No amount of extra layering or padding would ever prevent it from annoying me. Still, I had to focus.

The target was an information transaction between a turian arms dealer who goes by the current name of Solaik Railon and a local Blue Suns unit led by some human called Sydnor. They were scheduled to meet in this location several minutes from now. My job was to wait for the meeting, and take them all out after the information has been decrypted. No survivors.

Solaik was the first to arrive, landing his modified Kodiak shuttle in the designated field. He got out, accompanied by four mercenaries. All of them but one were turians, the standout being a large, fully armored krogan. That could possibly present a problem. They were all well armed, holding heavily modified M-76 Revenant LMGs. If push came to shove, they wouldn't hit anything at this range.

The Blue Suns arrived a minute later in an old Mantis gunship. Four of them quickly filed out and moved into an organized line. Two turians, a human and a batarian. The turians sported M-27 Scimitar shotguns, while the other two had M-8 Avenger rifles. As with all Blue Suns, they wore identical armor. Sydnor walked out of the gunship shortly afterwords, sporting a set of fully-charged tech barriers.

A constant stream of micro-adjustments streamed over the corner of my HUD as the scope compensated for changing wind speeds and possible distance vectors. This weather was playing hell with the custom settings on my compensator. I shut it off, instead electing to do this the old-fashioned way. I took aim again without interference as the two leaders approached each other.

"_So... do you have it?_" Sydnor asked with crossed arms, unaware that I was listening in. He looked fairly confident in himself, but then again most humans I ran into seemed to have large egos. The fool wasn't even armed. "_I don't have time to screw around, my boss is looking to get this information as soon as possible._"

"_First you show me the money. Then we can talk about the information._" Solaik quickly deflected, annoyance filling his face. He was dressed in nothing more than an orange jumpsuit and a combat vest. He may not have had much protection on, but he had one of the biggest scowls I had ever seen on a turian.

With a simple scowl, Sydnor reached into a pouch attached to his belt and withdrew a credit chit. On it was enough money to buy a small ship, $175,000 Citadel Standard (CS). I didn't often question my jobs, but I did have to wonder what kind of information was worth such an obscene amount of currency. I banished the thought from my head as I refocused on my objective.

Solaik snatched the chit out of Sydnor's hand, causing him to jump back slightly. Sydnor's men all pointed their guns at Solaik in reaction to the quick movement. Solaik's men did the same, before he held up his hand. They lowered their weapons as the Blue Suns did the same.

"_This will be a good transaction_." Solaik remarked as his displeased expression softened slightly. He removed a slim metal container from his vest, holding it close to himself as he looked back at Sydnor. "_This __shell contains the OSD. The code to open it is 0451._"

That was enough information for me. As Solaik held out his hand to give the container to Sydnor, I detonated a series of demolition charges I had planted in the meeting spot beforehand.

Lucky for me, the two sets of charges I planted happened to be underneath both ships. Solaik's ship erupted into as shower of sparks, fire and metal as one of the charges ruptured it's mass effect core. The initial blast instantly killed two of his men, and the latter explosion knocked the other two, a krogan and a turian down.

Sydnor's gunship had one of it's thrusters blow clean off by the charges, causing it to quickly pitch towards port. It landed belly up, and exploded. One of Sydnor's men were killed instantly, but the others were still in good condition. It took less then three seconds for that to change. I fired my M-9 Widow, turning one of Sydnor's men into purple paste.

All hell broke loose from there. Both sides opened fire on one another and scrambled for what little cover there was in the clearing. I fired again, taking the arm off of another one of Sydnor's men. Solaik's krogan merc charged forward in a rage as he was put down by a well-placed shotgun slug. Another shot rang out from my rifle, this time taking out Solaik's last remaining merc.

Solaik fired his Carnifex at Sydnor's last man, killing him with a well-placed shot to the cranium. It was down to the two of them. Sydnor fired wildly at Solaik with a rifle he picked up as he dodged between pieces of cover. In a dumb move, Sydnor tried to give chase but was instead greeted by three shots to the chest. The first shattered his shields and the other two pierced his armor.

Sydnor hit the ground like a rock, going stiff. He was either already dead from a shot to the heart or one of his lungs had collapsed. Solaik got down on his knees and drew a knife, presumably to finish him off. I fired one last shot, blowing his head clean from his shoulders. His body slumped down, falling to Sydnor's side.

With all the targets eliminated, I collected my rifle and walked down the stony hill. The blood of both sides had begun to run over the shiny layer of ice that covered everything in sight. The freezing rain pelting me was only more visible as the fires from the wrecks illuminated everything in sight. I picked up the blood-covered container, placing it inside my backpack.

I quickly drew my pistol as a loud gasp for air could be heard. I turned to see Sydnor still on the ground, staring up at the sky.

"Who... a-are you?" He asked without looking at me, blood seeping from his body.

I responded to his inquiry by shooting him once in the face. I figured it was more of a mercy killing by this point, anyways. I picked through Solaik's pockets, taking the credit chit he had received. To the victor goes the spoils.

After hiking away from the meeting site, I opened my shuttle's miniature decontamination room. I took off the extra coat that I had worn, putting it and my other loose items inside a separate decon machine. Once the sequence was done, I entered my small but cozy cabin. My shuttle was an old troop transport that had been heavily modified. I turned it into my own private, traveling home. Nick-knacks lined every nook and crevice that could be seen, gathered over the years. I liked how homey it was.

I plopped myself down on an expensive leather seat I had recently bought, reclining to work out the kink in my back that had once again reared it's ugly head. After it disappeared, I pulled my hood back and removed the mask, taking in the fresh, recycled air. It was always nice, being able to take the thing off ever once and a while.

Setting the helmet down on the desk, I stared at it as I often did after missions. I had to take into account that this was all people ever saw of me whenever I was outside of my ship. Back on the Flotilla, this would have been considered one of the highest forms of art and expression that any one quarian could have. The suit and mask, while initially donned as a necessity, had unwittingly become a large part of our culture.

I still pondered what my own mask said about me. While any human, turian, or asari would look at this and see the markings as damage or scratches, in reality they told a story of pain, love, and death. Every mark, every symbol, every scratch... every one of them was their own story. That was always the thing I appreciated about my people... they wrote everything on the wall. What that writing meant...

My thoughts were interrupted as the smaller decon machine beeped, signaling that it had finished it's cycles. I grabbed the chit first and foremost, placing it in my safe. I'd have to burn that money later. The second state of business was the container, which had been completely dried and decontaminated. I stared at it, wondering once again what was so important about the information inside of it.

While my job was to deliver this unopened to my contact on Illium, my curiosity was becoming harder and harder to resist. I finally gave in, plugging the code "0451" into the container. It opened, revealing a small OSD. It was barely bigger than the tip of my finger. I plugged it into my omni-tool, itching to see what I had gone through all this trouble for.

It was a large data dump of some type, but it was heavily encrypted. Whatever it was, there was a lot of it, because there was petabytes of content on this little device. There was no point in trying to decrypt it, the encryption looked like it was at least military-grade in strength. I disconnected it and placed it back in it's container, locking it with the same code.

Lightning struck outside, quickly obscuring the cockpit in a bright flash of light. I sat down in my old chair, turning on the communications array.

"This is Evela, I have finished the job." I said after establishing a connection to my client.

"_Very good, Ms. Evela._" The scrambled voice on the other end said with a sense of satisfaction. "_Is the package still sealed?_"

I pondered the question for a split second before replying "Yes." I figured they wouldn't be able to tell the difference, especially since I didn't change the code.

"_Good. Bring the __package to Max Collins, our contact on Illium. You will be paid upon delivering the package._" The voice explained, as coordinates were simultaneously sent to me. "_He will meet you tomorrow at 8:00 in the Amitron Club, third floor._"

With that, the transmission ended, leaving nothing to trace it. Not even an echo remained of the signal.

I didn't like the prospect of working for someone who didn't even divulge their face, but the money this job was offering was too good to pass down. Still, these guys were pretty serious about the little OSD, and I wasn't going to risk another death order from any other groups by refusing to deliver it because of a feeling.

With my new orders, I fired up the engines and sped away from the cold planet.

…

Six Hours Later

With plenty of time to spare before my meeting, I decided to make another stop at Omega, one of my favorite "hangouts." The place may be a cesspool of murder, greed, and filth, but there was no better place to get your hands on the latest black market equipment. I pulled into the confines of the station, resting in a private shuttle bay my old human friend Calvin Windham rents out to me.

Calvin was a rare anomaly here on Omega; he was a human that you could trust. A tall human in his late forties, he had "salt and pepper" hair and a long scar going along the side of his jaw. He's a former member of the Blue Suns who left after a major shift in leadership occurred in the group. After his exodus, he used his gained knowledge to set up a successful body armor business here on the station.

He and I met when I came here after leaving the Flotilla. He helped me learn the ropes of mercenary business after he saw me kill three turian muggers with nothing more than an old pistol. As silly as it seems now, if it wasn't for him, I may have never survived my first month away from home.

As luck would have it, Calvin happened to be around when I hopped out of the shuttle. He was standing next to a pile of crates waiting to be shipped out.

"Hey kid, how's it going?" He asked, smoking a cigar as his old, archaic jukebox next to him played music. "Still getting yourself into trouble?"

"Come on, you already know the answer to that." I replied sarcastically, fist-bumping as we always did when we greeted. "Besides, what fun would the world be if I played by the rules?"

"Amen to that." He agreed, flashing one of his big smiles. "So, what brings you back to Omega on such short notice? I would have bought you some lunch if I knew you we coming for a visit."

"I'm just stopping by to burn a little money." I answered, flashing the $175,000 credit chit I had retrieved.

"Jesus, where did you get that much money?" He asked, looking rather surprised.

"I took it from someone who won't be needing it, don't worry." I replied with an unseen smile. "Maybe I could buy lunch instead?"

"I'd have to be crazy to say no to that." He agreed without another thought, as he threw on a coat and we left.

Knowing all too well what Omega is, I always made sure to keep my sidearm held close when walking around here. There aren't many quarians on the station, and there are even fewer female quarians. The more depraved elements of the station would see that as something they could take advantage of, but if that threat ever materialized, they wouldn't be a threat much longer.

I wore a long, gray cloak that reached down to my knees. It made for a subtle and unassuming outfit, fitting my hood well. Calvin wore an old, leather jacket that had belonged to his father. It helped complement his size.

"Heh, I finally pinned my finger on what you look like!" Calvin announced with another smile. "You remind me of Jedi when you wear that cloak."

"What's a "Jedi?" I asked, obviously confused by his statement.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't seen that." He retracted, now thinking of an explanation. "It's from an old movie series called Star Wars, where these warrior monks called Jedi would fight these Dark Jedi called "The Sith" with these cool laser swords called lightsabers."

"Sounds interesting." I replied, now thinking of the technology that would be needed to make something along those lines. I eventually gave up after deeming it impossible.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at The Hungry Krogan and ordered our usual menu items. Mine may have come in a tube, but it still tasted better than anything else on the station. It was Yusai, a turian "lunch" item that had been reduced to a paste and heavily filtered. It tasted vaguely sweet, and helped make my stomach feel better when ill.

Calvin always got this thing called a "cheeseburger", a piece of cooked meat with cheese and a human vegetable called "onions" between two pieces of wheat-based products. I never understood the appeal of it, especially since he always complained about them being "better back home." While I could imagine the appeal of such a product, I would never try it.

"So, have you had any luck lately?" He asked, taking a sip from his drink.

"With what?" I asked, the vague nature of his question eluding me.

"Findin' your brother?" He clarified, eating a fried slice of "potato" between statements. "You're still looking for him, right?"

"No, I still haven't been able to find anything on Meir." I replied after pausing and thinking about it for a few seconds. "It's been four years, Calvin. He's probably dead."

"Aw, that's no way to think about it." Calvin reflected, focusing completely on me. "There's always a chance that he's still out there."

"Maybe, but that chance gets smaller every day." I said with purposely added bitterness so he would drop the subject.

I didn't want to think about my brother anymore. Calvin's optimism wasn't going to have any effect on me, I firmly believed my brother was long dead by this point. Four years is a long time for a loving member of your family to abruptly cut contact with you.

"So, you feel like tellin' old Calvin what you've been up to as of late?" He asked with one of his big, goofy smiles. "I could stand to hear a good story after the week I've had."

"What's been wrong on your end?" I asked, suddenly interested. If it was something I could help with, I'd always offer to "straighten it out" for him free of charge.

"Oh, nothing violent or nothin'." He replied, waving his hand dismissively. "Aria herself hired me to install the new gen IV kinetic barriers into the armors of all her "employees."

"She trusted you to do that?" I questioned, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, one of her enforcers, that turian Gavorn, frequents my shop. He must have put in a good word for me." He explained, folding his arms behind his head. "I don't really mind, seeing as how good the pay is, but hot damn it takes a long time to install new barriers for that many people."

He then leaned forward, focusing back on me.

"Ok ok, I'll tell you what's been going on with me." I caved, knowing he would just keep asking. "I've spend the last week hunting down some data for a well-paying client out near Illium. Just a few hours ago I finally got my hands on it."

With that, I took out the cylindrical container and showed it to him before returning it to my backpack.

"I have to deliver it tomorrow." I finished, sucking some more paste out of the tube.

"Who is this client of yours?" He asked, leaning forward with his elbows on the table.

"To be honest, I don't really know." I answered, looking back at him as his face began to turn. "I know how you feel about knowing the identity of your client, but the money is too good to pass up."

"Of course you know how I feel about that!" Calvin said with sudden, but controlled anger. "Damn it, girl, I told you to never accept jobs from anonymous clients!"

"1,000,000 CS, Calvin." I said matter of factly, quickly changing his expression from one of anger to disbelief.

"Wha-... what is that thing? Why is it worth so much?" He asked in a slightly more gentle voice as to not attract anyone the attention of anyone else.

"Inside the container is an OSD with a wealth of information." I answered, leaning forward. "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is it must be important because that thing has military-level encryption on it."

"That may be a lifetime's worth of money, Evela, but something like that isn't going to be chased by just one person." He cautioned, looking concerned. "There are powerful people after that OSD, and I'd get rid of it as soon as possible."

"I can't take that risk, Calvin. It's too big of a score to just throw away." I said defiantly, folding my arms as he leaned back.

"Fine then, but I don't want any part of that OSD." He wrapped up, standing up and throwing his coat back on. "Once you leave the station, I don't want you back in my home until that thing is gone."

"There's no need to be paranoid, Calvin..." I tried to reason, as he flipped back around to face me.

"There's a perfect need to be paranoid, that thing is trouble and I can feel it." He said with finality, looking me straight in the eyes. "Goodbye Evela."

Without another word, he turned back around and left the restaurant, leaving me by myself. While I didn't like seeing Calvin upset like this, I had to stick to my guns on this. 1,000,000 CS is enough for me to leave the mercenary business and maybe even buy something good to bring back to the Fleet...

"_No._"I thought, expelling that thought from my head when I remembered my mother. I either found my brother or never returned... and I think I already knew where that was going.

With my tubes emptied, I retreated under my cloak and left the restaurant. I entered the markets, checking out the batarian vendor. The batarians always sold interesting things, all of it illegal, but that was of little consequence to me.

"Gortauq, how's it going?" I asked, getting his attention.

"Oh, hello Evela." He returned, walking over with a datapad in his hand. "Nothing much has happened. I'm sorry, we still haven't gotten that shipment of grenades you wanted."

"Damn." I exclaimed, crossing my arms.

"I need to get my hands on a new supplier, my usual contact has given me nothing but junk as of late." He explained before his eyes widened. Whether it was out of fear or surprise, I didn't know. "Um. I gotta go, sorry Evela."

He quickly ran off back into his shop, as I turned around to see two of Aria's men behind me. One of them was Gavorn, the other was Grizz. Turians. They were both holding rifles. Everyone here on the station knew who worked for Aria, and everyone also knew she didn't take shit from anyone.

"Evela'Zadie?" Gavorn questioned, looking down at me.

"That's right." I confirmed, ready to spring into action at any given moment. I knew that Aria must have sent them, and I wasn't going to take any chances.

"Aria would like to see you in Afterlife." He said, instantly surprising and confusing me all at once.

"What for?" I asked, still ready for anything to happen.

"She has a job offer for you. she's heard good things about you from Calvin Windham." He explained further, causing me to tense down slightly. "I'd meet with her soon, Aria isn't one to wait for long."

"I'll... consider it." I answered slowly, as Gavorn handed me an Afterlife VIP pass. Then the two of them walked away. I let my heartbeat return to normal before processing what just happened.

"_Why would Aria want to see me?_" I thought to myself, still standing in front of Gortauq's vendor. "_Did she know about my package, or did she really want to offer me a job?_"

Even if I wasn't sure about what she wanted, I didn't have much choice but to go and see her. I'd have to be stupid not to, considering I just got a direct invitation and a free VIP pass. I suppose it was time to give Afterlife a visit.

…

30 Minutes Later

Enter into YouTube:

/watch?v=Fxa3J-g0hc

I stood in front of Afterlife, seeing the giant hologram of the asari dancer flicker in front of me and the line of people waiting to get in. Even from out here I could hear the loud club music blaring, shaking the ground beneath my feet. It was an interesting feeling, one that I didn't get to experience very often. I walked past the large line of people, flashing my new VIP pass at the Elcor bouncer.

"Indifferent: Go on, Aria is expecting you." He said in his monotonous tone of voice.

"Thank you." I replied, as the door slid open revealing a longer hallway with projections of fire on both sides.

I had to admit, from what I had seen already, Aria sure knew how to run a club.

I entered the main room, seeing the place was packed to burst with people. The majority of people were either crowded around the bar or the railing that bordered the center dancer platform. I looked up to see Aria's private booth overlooking the entire club. She was staring directly at me.

I took that as a sign to hurry up.

I walked up the stairs into the booth, the music dying down. Aria was still facing the main floor, looking down at the club-goers. She slowly turned around, looking me up and down for a few seconds.

"So you are Evela." Aria remarked, a curious expression on her face. "I've heard a lot about you. Tell me, is it true you single-handedly killed Robert Lunsden and his whole crew of mercenaries?"

"I didn't come here to make small talk, Aria. I'm here because you want me here." I redirected, causing one of her eyebrows to raise.

"Straight to business... I can appreciate that in a woman." She said with a smile, inviting me to sit down. "So, you must be wondering why I invited you here."

"The thought had crossed my mind." I confirmed, leaning forward. "What does the most powerful woman on Omega want with a small-timer like me?"

"I think you know exactly what I am talking about." She said with a small glare. She knew.

"What's your interest in the package I picked up?" I caved, knowing there was no way I could bullshit Aria.

"It's more of a passive interest." Aria explained, leaning forward. "I deal in all sorts of things, including information. The Shadow Broker could have a field day with what is on that OSD of yours."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, still surprised that she knew so much already. "What do you know about this OSD?"

"All I know about it is that it came from an old Cerberus research facility destroyed awhile ago on Noveria." She enlightened, ringing some bells in my head. "Any classified information on Cerberus is worth a lot in the black market. You stand to make a lot of money from that little OSD."

"Are you offering to buy it from me?" I inquired, suddenly more interested.

"I am. I'm offering you 750,000, plenty for a single mercenary of your caliber." She offered, leaning back again. "I also know it's a better deal than any other ones you may have received."

"How would you know?" I asked, a little bit angered by her confidence.

"Because unlike some other elements here in the galaxy, I don't plan on backstabbing you." Aria said with reassurance, looking me in the eye with a smile. "Other people will kill for that information, I won't."

"And why wouldn't you just kill me after taking the OSD for yourself?" I questioned, leaning back. "You are the most powerful person on Omega, what's stopping you?"

"I wouldn't do that because I respect you." Aria said, springing more surprise from me. "You killing Robert and his mercenaries made things a lot easier for my men. I owe you for that, even if you didn't do it for me."

"I see..." I remarked, looking down at the ground. Aria's offer did seem pretty solid, but that 1,000,000... "I can't accept your offer, Aria, as generous as it may be. I already committed to another client."

"Have it your way, there's no skin off my back either way." Aria disregarded, her face becoming serious again. "My offer stands in case you change your mind. Just remember, I warned you."

"I'll keep that in mind." I finished, standing up.

Aria then quickly grabbed my wrist, causing me to flip around to face her.

"By the way, you have a great ass." She said with a chuckle and a smile, letting my wrist go. I was thoroughly surprised and embarrassed at the same time, but didn't show it.

With that, I walked out of the booth and left the club, pondering the information I now had. If this thing was Cerberus, than in could be worth even more than my first client was offering. Still, It was the best source I had at the moment, so of course I was going to focus on it.

I returned to my shuttle, speeding away from Omega. My next stop: Illium.


	2. Value Unknown

...

Several Hours Later

My shuttle stuttered as I exited FTL, the asari's crown "jewel" of the Terminus appearing in front of me. Illium. As far as I was concerned, this place was just as much of a shithole as Omega, but instead of holding you at gunpoint and demanding you hand over all your money, they stole everything you had through contracts, fees, and business deals. Either way, both places were "unkind" to quarians, which didn't help my perceptions at all.

"Hopefully I don't run into any Eclipse ..." I remarked bitterly to myself, recalling what happened last time I was here in Illium. I had a run-in with a small detachment of their mercs while I was hunting a bounty though the loading docks of one of Nos Astra's many spaceports.

To say the least, I may or may not have a large bounty on my own head after that encounter.

I swooped through the atmosphere, my transponder automatically sending my registration to Nos Astra's air control. This club I was supposed to meet my contact in was located deeper in the city, so I would have to find a new place to land since my usual zone was too far away.

"Come on, come on, there must be another zone around here somewhere..." I said out loud, browsing the list of temporary landing zones. After three minutes of searching, I finally found one. It wasn't that far away from the club, but I'd have to cross through a market promenade to reach it.

I had some extra time before the meeting, so I figured I'd check out some of the shops beforehand.

My shuttle dropped down with a gentle thump, as I placed my helmet back on and armed up. I would wear the same thing I wore on Omega, I couldn't think of any reason not to.

The shuttle door opened with a loud hiss, exposing me to the background din of overhead speeders and other transports going by. There wasn't much to see in the spaceport, just dock workers loading packages and containers onto other ships. Considering how densely populated this city was, I was genuinely surprised there weren't more people here.

That thought changed quickly as I entered the promenade. There were a lot of people here, most of them crowding around large storefronts or looking at the large hologram show happening above the center fountain. It actually looked quite beautiful, and I didn't get to see beauty very much in my line of work. That is unless you consider a Black Widow rifle to be beautiful, which I very much did.

There was also an abundance of "missing persons" notifications posted around the place. There were easily ten unique ones in this area alone. That was an indication that either the Eclipse were having another "recruitment drive", or there was some serious criminal activity taking place. Luckily for me, it wasn't my problem.

I happened upon a store specifically targeting suited races like my own called "Suit, The Premiere Volus and Quarian Envirosuit Outlet." I had never heard of such a place before, I just had to check it out. After going through the store's own decon sequence, I went inside. Like I expected, it was mostly Volus, but surprisingly there were two quarians in the shop as well.

"Hello!" The volus shopkeeper greeted rather warmly, walking over to me with that characteristic volus "wobble". "Welcome to Suit, Ms…?"

"Evela'Zadie Nar Havvano." I answered quickly, causing the shopkeeper to pause.

"Ah. Well then, is there anything I can help you with, Ms. Evela?" He refocused, putting his little hands together.

Mannequins lined the walls, displaying a surprisingly wide variety of suits for both races. One the main floor there were shelves that were lined with filters, upgrades, mods, even clear suits. I was attracted to the shelves near the back that were lined with up-armored suits. That immediately caught my eye.

"Yeah… what kind of armored suits do you have back there?" I inquired, pointing to them.

"Ah, you are looking for protection." He said with another wheeze between statements. "Follow me."

I followed him to the display, looking over the suits on display. They all looked interesting, but I had close to no idea what each one did.

"What are you looking for in a defensive suit?" He asked, trying to gauge what to offer to me.

"Something with good armor, customizable and compatible with older suit components." I listed off, sending the shopkeeper into a sea of thought.

"I know just the thing for you." He announced after a few seconds, walking over to a mannequin covered by a sheet. "We just got this two days ago."

He yanked the sheet off to reveal a red, black and grey suit. It had a thick armor plating on the chest, neck and leg regions, barebone aesthetics, and even a few included utilities such as holsters, bandoliers, and even a survival pack. It was… beautiful.

"This is the Altal Mk. 3, a defense suit developed by Kassa Fabrications. Its armor is composed of a lightweight titanium-steel alloy, making it some of the best one can possibly have for most forms of combat." The shopkeeper explained, as I stared in awe at the suit. "It's fully customizable, includes full omni-tool support, and comes with several additional accessories."

"I'll take it." I said without a second thought, looking down at the shopkeeper. "How much is it?"

"It's on the pricey side, considering how state-of-the-art it is. It'll run you around $150,000 plus ta..." He answered, sounding rather surprised when I handed him the $175,000 credit chit. "Um… very well, I'll go ring this up then. The suit is yours, would you like to put it on now?"

"Yes." I answered, as he opened up a clean room for me to use. I took the suit into the room, eager to get it on.

"Take all the time you need, newer suits, especially combat suits, can be a little uncomfortable at first." He told me as I sealed the room and activated the separate decon system.

Now in a completely private, clean, and soundproofed environment, I began to completely take my suit off for the first time since I put it on back in the Flotilla. It wasn't every day you got a brand new suit to wear, not to mention the suits were a big identifier in quarian society. But, considering my need for more protection in the line of work I lead, I would sacrifice that.

I was eventually down to nothing at all, and I looked at myself in the large mirror that was situated in the corner of the room. Though this didn't come as a surprise to me, I was still jolted at how pale I was. Being suited meant almost no sun for the rest of the body, and my face barely held any color either. It was a pale cross between purple and pink, which was standard for our race. Still, it was quite the contrast to the rest of my body. My shortened white hair was quite the rarity in quarian culture, and was supposed to signify a "peaceful and loving person."

That was obviously bullshit, but then again I wasn't the average quarian.

After I was done looking at myself, I began to put on the suit. The undersuit went of first, a state-of-the-art, almost gel-like layer that was supposed to help keep the body at a normal temperature, basic climate control. That would have been useful back on my last mission. The back of the undersuit had a built-in battery to help boost the shields. It also fit better than my old suit.

After that was on, the boots came next. They were certainly heavier than my old ones, but once they were firmly secured to the undersuit, they felt just as light as my old ones. The chest plate and armguards came next, going on without much trouble. The armguards were there for added protection, storage, and to bolster my shields with additional emitters. The chest plate was essentially a thick piece of metal meant to exclusively protect my vitals if the shield went down. It came with a detachable backpack, and was a good enough replacement for my old one.

The utility belts were up on the pecking order. They were easy enough to figure out, even with never having used them before. I tightened them so they wouldn't come loose. The belts held various utilities that I would sort through later, but the most interesting ones were two specially-made medi-gel injectors just for the suit. The helmet was last. While the suit did come with an armored-up helmet, I was going to stick with my old one. Changing suits was one thing, but changing faces? Even for me, that was too much. I was going to take the other helmet with me anyways, so no harm no foul.

With everything on and sealed, I did one last check of the suit. Moving around in it felt a lot better, I didn't feel a constant draft around the thinner parts of my suit, and everything was perfectly set to my body temperature. I looked down at my boots, thankful that I didn't have to risk suit tears when hitting the dirt anymore. Even with the added weight, I would be just as fast as I used to be, if not faster.

I looked down at my old suit, sitting in a heap on the table. It held a lot of memories, and of course I was going to keep it. Last thing I needed was for something to happen to this suit and not have a backup.

I depressurized the room, walking out with my old suit folded in my arm. The shopkeeper looked over to me, nodding in approval. I picked up a case of Yusai tubes for later, and walked over to the shopkeeper.

"It fits you well." He agreed, ringing up the tubes to the shit I had given him. "Thank you for shopping at Suit, I wish you good luck in the future, Ms. Evela."

"Thanks." I finished, walking back through the decon room. After one last cycle, I was back in the world.

With about half an hour left, I made my way back to the shuttle to drop off my things. I was fortunate that my cloak fit well over the new suit, and made it much less… attention-grabbing. Just because I felt more protected didn't mean I wanted to "look like a Christmas tree" as Calvin always described.

With my new suit and renewed optimism, I looked up the location of the Amitron and started walking.

…

Fifteen Minutes Later

Enter On Youtube: Perturbator – Miami Disco

(Play on repeat until this section of the chapter is finished.)

/watch?v=pRtxavxTmiY

I eventually found the Amitron Club, and all things considered it would have been hard to miss it. Amitron was a human-centric, "80's themed" nightclub with an energetic flair. It was at least four stories tall, blasting loud music similar to some of the stuff I had heard Calvin play around his apartment. Even as far as nightclubs go, this one was a mad house. Bright neon red, pink, purple, and orange flashed erratically around the club, making it nearly impossible to effectively identify anyone.

That could prove to be quite the advantage if push ever came to shove.

The place was filled to the brim with people, so much so that I was surprised I could even move. For someone like me, this was downright cozy. If it wasn't for the fact that none of these people were quarians, I think I could relax easy here.

The abundance of people also pinged another thought. If anything bad were to happen here, there would likely be a lot of civilian casualties. I may be a heartless bitch in other scenarios, but I wouldn't want some poor sod to end up dead because I happened to be near them at the time. It would be an unnecessary waste of life.

I walked over to the bar, ordering a tube of turian brandy, triple filtered. The asari bartender did look surprised, but that only amused me. It was always funny seeing people reacting to a quarian who didn't act "awkward or nervous" around other races.

"Hey barkeep, does the name Max Collins ring any bells?" I yelled over the music after she finished finding the tube.

"You're the one he's meeting with?" She said out loud unenthusiastically. "He's waiting for you on the fourth floor, lounge seven. I'll let the bouncer know you're coming."

With that out of the way, I made my way up the stairs. The turian bouncer there let me through without trouble. I walked into Lounge Seven, seeing a single human sitting there smoking a cigar.

"Ah, Evela. Welcome! Please take a seat." The man greeted, as I shut the door behind me. The music outside was immediately muffed, meaning this room was soundproofed. "How do you like my club?"

"You own this place?" I inquired, mildly surprised. I had expected to meet with some sort of informant, not the actual club owner.

"Yes, it took me three years to finally turn this place into a reality!" He said with a lot of energy, throwing his arms up in the air. "A place that brings all races of the galaxy back to a time where action stars, yuppies, and Ronald Reagan reigned supreme! The glory days of America?"

"America?" I asked, utterly lost at what he was talking about.

"Oh, um… never mind." He quickly corrected, sitting down behind the table. "Sorry, sometimes I get a little… excited."

"The package?" I redirected, staying perfectly still.

"Ah yes, the package." He repeated, his face dropping slightly. "What was the amount again?"

"1,000,000 CS." I answered, still sitting completely still.

Why was he asking this? He was my contact, he should have known exactly what he owed me.

"Um… are you sure that was the agreed amount?" He asked, finally pissing me off.

"Quit playing dumb with me!" I shouted with anger, standing up and looking down at him. "I've been after this thing for weeks, where is my fucking payment?"

"I would get back in your chair, Ms. Evela." He said, unmoving as his face hardened, frowning in an unamused fashion.

"Why should I?" I yelled, banging my fist on the table. "Give me the money you own me, and you'll get the information."

"Oh, we'll get the OSD, don't worry." He remarked blankly, as I felt the barrels of two rifles touch the back of my helmet. "Now please sit back down."

Fuck.

Without another word, I held up my hands and slowly returned to my seat. They took the rifle off my back and both of my pistols, throwing them to the ground. These guys must have been waiting in the room with active camouflage before I even got here. Whoever they were, they meant business.

"So… I suppose this just turned into a stick-up." I said with a bitter tone, lowering my hands.

Max leaned forward, brandishing a large, archaic six-shooter. Even with it being an older weapon, it looked powerful enough to shatter my faceplate if it were to connect.

"What did you see on that OSD?" He asked, pointing the revolver at my head. "We know you opened the container. What did you see?"

"Look, I just got a little curious, alright?" I pleaded, realizing how many options I had here. "The thing was encrypted, I couldn't view what was on it even if I tried."

"We can't take that chance." Max remarked with finality in his voice. He looked off to the side, aiming the revolver slightly to the left.

Before anything else could happen, I shoved the chair I was sitting in backwards, smacking the two men behind me in the knees. In the same motion, I leaped across the table, wrestling the revolver out of Max's hand. Despite him being slightly bigger than me, I managed to get the upper hand. Just as the other two were recovering, I retrieved the revolver and held Max at gunpoint.

"Back off, I said BACK OFF!" I threatened, pushing the barrel of the six shooter into his cranium. "Drop your weapons or this bosh'tet's brains are going all over the wall!"

"Do as she says." Max said with an obvious hint of fear in his voice.

I scooted around the men as they slowly lowered they weapons to the ground.

"Kick my pistols back over. NOW!" I yelled, as they did so.

"You really think you can get out of here alive?" Max mocked in an attempt to get into my head. "I have over forty armed men in this building."

I had to do this quickly, or else I would be dead within seconds.

I pushed Max forward, blowing the back of his head off with his own revolver. His body knocked the two men over with pure dead weight. I tossed the revolver and retrieved one of my pistols, putting them down before they could push the body off. Even with the room being soundproofed, I could see that more men were on their way, pushing people in a rush to reach me.

I grabbed the rest of my stuff, including one of the cloaking devices, and fired through the window, shattering it. The music flooded in instantly as I leapt through quickly scanning over my surroundings. There were armored men coming at me from both sides, so those were out of the question. The only other way out I could make out was down.

"Everyone out of the way!" I shouted, firing one of my pistols in the air to incite a panic. I readied myself, charging forward and grasping for the edge of a dancer's platform. I barely caught it, dangling by one hand.

"I should had accepted Aria's damn deal…" I muttered to myself, dropping down to the ground floor. Max's men tried to circle around me, but I killed two of them before I leapt behind the bar. Various bottles shattered above me as changed heat sinks, the guards firing wildly in an attempt to pin me down. They might have tossed grenades, but there were simply too many people around to do that. Two of the bouncers attempted to go around the bar to flank me, but I deployed a combat drone to distract them. That gave me my chance. I tossed a flash bang into the open, blinding and deafening the unarmored guards. I ran as fast as I could, disappearing into the crowd of people still trying to get out of the club.

After putting a few hundred yards between myself and the club, I looked back at it to see Police converging on it. They could deal with what was left of that place.

I escaped for now, but after the display they just put on they would certainly be on my tail again soon.

…

Thirty Minutes Later

I was still trying to figure out what happened back there. Everything "went to shit" so quickly, as Calvin would often say. The stupid container or the OSD must have been bugged, they somehow knew that I had taken a look at one of them. I would think harder about this after I had gotten clear of any more mercenaries.

I reached my shuttle after avoiding anyone and everybody in my path. There didn't seem to be anyone following me, but I wasn't taking any chances after what just happened.

I was just about to go inside when I heard engines revving up beneath me.

Two white, black and orange Mantis gunships appeared, aiming all their weapons at me. Those were Cerberus markings, I should have known they would be behind something like this. The info came from an old base of theirs, they obviously would have wanted it back. I had to do something quickly, or else they would blow me to smithereens.

"_You are in possession of Cerberus property!_" A loudspeaker shouted at me from one of the gunships. "_Drop your weapons and equipment, or we will open fire!_"

"YOU WANT THIS?!" I shouted, holding the storage container up in the air. "COME AND GET IT!"

"_Open fire!_" They shouted, as I leaped off of the platform, landing behind a pile of crates.

I activated my new cloaking device, running back into the guts of the spaceport as mass accelerator rounds ripped everything to shreds behind me. I fled into the warehouse, thankful that no one was working shifts this time of night. I locked the doors behind me, frying the controls to slow them down. I came in here knowing there would only be three more options for them. They would either deploy troops to go inside, blow the roof and attempt to find me that way, or both.

Either way, I still had the advantage. This place was a maze, and had great positions for me to pick off targets with my Widow. If they wanted that OSD, they'd have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

"Come on, you fuckers…" I muttered, climbing on top a large stack of cargo containers and setting up my Widow. "Backstabbing bosh'tets…"

About thirty seconds later, I could hear the front door to the warehouse being blown open by explosives. Fortunately, since warehouse was devoid of workers, I could pull this off any way I wanted to.

A squad of heavily armored commandos entered the warehouse, looking in every direction. I actually found it quite funny that none of them looked up, they would have seen me bright as day.

I cooked a grenade, throwing it right into the middle of the squad. It killed six of them in an instant, leaving four incapacitated and three unharmed. Four loud bangs rang out and only two of the commandos were dead. The last one called for reinforcements before I put a hole in his chest.

I like I predicted, not even five seconds later one of the gunships blew a hole in the top of the warehouse, knocking out the lights inside. All the dumb bastards did was give me cover and a clear shot at their stabilizers. One armor-piercing incendiary, and those things were scrap.

Commandos trying to rappel down through the hole were turned into ragdolls as the gunship spun out of control, sending them careening off into the distance. The gunship itself smashed right through the ceiling it blew a hole in, crashing into a large stack of crates waiting to be shipped out across Nos Astra. It was still intact, but the fire inside ensured anyone left would be burnt to a crisp.

The other gunship decided to bug out, likely due to excessive losses. They fled off towards the north, leaving me with the wounded. I jumped down and walked over to them, the one in the best condition attempting to crawl away.

He meekly tried to pull a pistol on me, but I easily knocked it out of his hands. He gave into weakness, letting himself go limp.

"So… where are your friends going?" I asked, kneeling next to him and taking off his helmet.

"What… is it to you… suit rat?" He gasped out, blood dripping out the corner of his mouth. It was obvious he wasn't going to last much longer. I didn't care in the slightest, but I needed to find out something.

"If you tell me where your friends are going, I might give you some medi-gel." I offered, holding up my omni-tool. He looked at it the same way a starving animal would look at food.

"They're going… to a base… we… have hidden near… their north… pole. Coords… on omni-tool…" He said slowly through bursts of pain. "Please… that's all… I know… I don't want to die."

I took out one of my pistols and put a round through his head. His wounds were too bad for him to be saved anyways, it was a mercy killing at that point. I took the information off his omni-tool, finding the coords of this "northern base" of theirs.

This just kept on getting more and more complicated. If I had any chance of pulling off a heist in a military compound, I would need backup.

…

**A/N: Well, there is the second chapter of Blood Ties, I hope all of you liked it. By this point, I have developed a synopsis of where this story is going to go, something I neglected to do when I still wrote The Odd Ones Out.**

**Please fav and review my story, It really does help! This is GIR, signing off.**


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